


A letter from a mage to a Templar

by thewightknight



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 17:56:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2279229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/pseuds/thewightknight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A letter, sent sometime during Chapter 2 of Dragon Age 2, from the Champion of Ferelden to Knight Captain Cullen at the Gallows in Kirkland</p>
            </blockquote>





	A letter from a mage to a Templar

**Author's Note:**

> A one-off, inspired by this mod for Dragon Age Origins, but occurring during the events of Dragon Age 2  
> http://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/1949/?

Knight-Captain Cullen,

It has been many years since my apprenticeship at the Circle Tower in Ferelden. I hope those years have been kind to you. I know that there is a chance that you will not even open this letter, but I still write in the hope that you will read my words through to the end and consider them. The rumors I hear in my travels over happenings in Kirkwall trouble me, especially with my own personal knowledge of how what is meant to control can lead to disobedience and rebellion.

Let me tell you a story, then, of a young mage who fell in love with a Templar. He was so handsome, standing tall in his armor. She would plan her days as much as she was allowed so she could catch glimpses of him. They rarely spoke, as she had not undergone the Harrowing and her contact with anyone other than her fellow apprentices and her mage instructors was severely limited, and yet she thought perhaps he also cared for her, as whenever she would glance his way it seemed he was also looking in her direction. 

When the time came for her Harrowing, it was a great source of comfort to see his face amongst those that would watch her testing. With him to stand guard over her, with him to return to, surely she could not fail.

Afterwards, flush with pride and joy in her success, she sought him out, for the first time able to converse without supervision. It was then that she learned he had been assigned the task of the killing blow if she had failed her test. It was also then that she learned that he did indeed share her feelings, for she heard the pain in his voice when he confessed to her that he would have been expected to take her life. She kissed him then, to try to take away some of the pain, but instead he fled, and with his leaving she realized that they had known, the Knight Commander and the First Enchanter. They had known of the feelings these two had for each other, and as the mage was tested so was the Templar.

It was with this knowledge fresh in her mind that, when she was approached by her friend, a fellow apprentice, who had a plan to escape from the Tower with his love, a Chantry initiate, that she pledged to help them. She knew that their love was as forbidden as hers, and was moved to make the impossible possible in some way, even if not for herself. A blood mage escaped, and a young mage joined the Grey Wardens, hoping that she could in some way make amends.

Nothing ever eased for her the remembrance of those that that were hurt and those who died because of her actions on that day. But it only made her belief stronger that change needed to be made, that the strictures and censures practiced in the tower only served to foster the resentments that created the kinds of situations of which she had become a part.

The templar, too, also came to believe that change needed to be made, but his views on this change were the opposite of the mages. After Uldred and the Tower’s fall, he advocated even stricter control. The mage still remembers his face, I am told, after the Tower was cleansed, when he insisted that all the surviving mages should be killed, because of the chance that one of them could possibly harbor a demon.

I do not know if the Templar still believes that harsh measures are the only answer, but I hope that he has had opportunity to reflect and change in these passing years. If this is not the case, I hope that the words of the story I have related here may cause a softening of heart. 

If you are still reading, as I hope with every fiber of my being that you are, I beg of you to work to counter the excesses I hear of regarding the Circle in Kirkwall. Change will come one way or another, and on its current course, when that change comes it will shake the foundations of our world, to the grief of all.

With all my heart,  
Amarië Surana  
Hero of Ferelden  
Commander of the Grey

**Author's Note:**

> There are lots of thoughts which could turn this into a multi-chapter fiction, but whether they ever will get written is a mystery.
> 
> Feel free to come say hi over on [tumblr](http://thewightknight.tumblr.com/).


End file.
